April 26, 2019

Thank you, Coach Ward!

Chabot

19-21

Diablo Valley

15-22

Final

Chabot

Diablo Valley

Coach Steve Ward has coached baseball for over 30 years at different levels, including head or assistant coaching positions at the high school, community college and Division-1 levels. He also spent six years coaching travel youth baseball teams. Ward will retire as the head coach for DVC Baseball, with the most career wins of any baseball coach in DVC history, with a combined record going into this season of 453-408-3. He has held the position of Head Baseball Coach three separate stints since the summer of 1986 (1987-2000, 2012 and 2014-present).

In 21 seasons as head coach, his teams have qualified for the state playoffs 11 times and since 1987, has had well over 100 players transfer to four schools, many of which have also been drafted by Major League Baseball and have signed minor league contracts. Coach Ward's 1989 team won the school's first ever Golden Gate Conference Championship. He was inducted into the California Community College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition to his duties as baseball head coach, Ward has been a full-time faculty member at DVC since 1989 and will be retiring from this position as well at the end of this year. Ward served Diablo Valley College as its Athletic Director from July 1994 to January 2008 and will remain the chairman of the DVC Athletic Hall of Fame that he founded in 2005.

Steve felt a need to recognize not only past athletic excellence but also celebrate what these student athletes achieved after their education was completed and playing days were over, so he founded the DVC Athletic Hall of Fame. It has inducted All-State players, Conference MVP's, record setters as well as former MLB and NFL professional. More importantly, DVC has enshrined former student athletes who became four-year college graduates, teachers, coaches, firefighters, fire department captains, police, sheriff personnel, military, government employees, health professionals, and business owners. Even to the current California State University system chancellor, Tim White.

Prior to his coaching career, Ward attended and played baseball as a left-handed pitcher for Laney & Chabot College's in 1976-77. He earned his A.A. degree from Chabot College in 1977. Upon graduating, he transferred and pitched for UC-Riverside and earned his B.A. degree in Sociology from UCR in 1979. He then signed as a free agent and pitched in the minor leagues with the (then) California Angels. Ward earned his M.A. degree in Health, Physical Education & Recreation while coaching at Saint Mary's College in Moraga.

Ward leaves behind a legacy on the field, in the classroom, and in the lives of many student-athletes and colleagues that had the opportunity to work with him over the past 33 years. His dedication and commitment to the DVC Athletic community is unmatched and his presence will greatly be missed on campus every day.